Spectri Sonori
Spectri Sonori, a concert series and a chamber music ensemble specializing in performance of contemporary music, has been in residence at the Newcomb Music Department, Tulane University, since 1987. The series has presented the most recent compositions along with the established masterpieces of the recent past. The aim of Spectri Sonori is to introduce the New Orleans audience to the best works in the contemporary music literature and to encourage composers to create new works by offering an international composition competition and various special events in conjunction with the annual concert series. Among the grants the series has been awarded are grants from the French Government, Louisiana State Arts Council, Newcomb Foundation, Leonie D. Rothschild, Presser Foundation of Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, and a grant and a “Certificate of Excellence for Contribution to the Arts in the Greater New Orleans Community” from the David M. Metzner M.D. Foundation for the Arts.
October 25 Featured Artists:
The Welsh baritone Jeremy Huw Williams studied at St John’s College, Cambridge, at the National Opera Studio, and with April Cantelo. He made his debut with Welsh National Opera as Guglielmo (Così fan tutte) and has since appeared in more than sixty operatic roles. He has given performances at major venues in North and South America, Australia, Hong Kong, and most European countries.
He has given recitals at London’s Wigmore Hall and Purcell Room, and at many major music festivals. He is renowned as a fine exponent of contemporary music, having commissioned much new music and given premieres of works by Alun Hoddinott, William Mathias, John Tavener, Michael Berkeley, Paul Mealor, Julian Phillips, Richard Causton, Mark Bowden, and Huw Watkins. He frequently records for BBC Radio 3 (in recital, and with the BBC NOW, CBSO, BBC SO, BBC SSO, BBC Philharmonic and BBC CO), and has made many commercial recordings, including eight solo discs of songs.
As a principal singer with Welsh National Opera he appeared at the opening night of the Wales Millennium Centre, and received the inaugural Sir Geraint Evans Award from the Welsh Music Guild, given annually to a person or persons who have made a significant contribution to Welsh music in any one year or recent years. He was awarded an Honorary Fellowship by Glyndwr University in 2009 for services to music in Wales, and received the Honorary Degree of Doctor of Music from the University of Aberdeen in 2011.
-
Pianist Paula Fan has appeared as soloist and chamber musician on five continents. As the first accompanist-coach to be invited to an emerging China, she performed on the earliest concerts of Western chamber music and art song to be heard there for decades. She has recorded twenty albums and has broadcast for the BBC, National Public Radio, Radio Television China, and international stations from Bosnia to Australia. As one of the first recipients of the doctorate in Collaborative Piano, she has lectured on the subject worldwide. She taught for 40 years at the University of Arizona School of Music.
A committed Earthwatch volunteer, Paula Fan is passionate about bridging the gap between the scientific and musical worlds. She is a founding member of the Solar Storytellers, a solar powered piano trio that has performed on the National Mall in Washington DC, and at the venerable Aspen Science Center. Currently, she is Principal Pianist with the Tucson Symphony Orchestra, Regents’ Professor Emerita of Music, and the first Senior Fellow of the interdisciplinary Confluencenter for Creative Inquiry at the University of Arizona.
